A drinks manufacturer opens a $165 million expansion of its bottling and warehouse facility at Richlands, making the Brisbane facility the company’s largest Australian manufacturing plant.

The plant is now capable of producing more than 90 million unit cases of drinks each year, and will be the exclusive Australian bottling and state-of-the-art 30,000m2 distribution centre which will supply beverages to both domestic and export customers. The new plant will produce an extensive range of sparkling and still beverages, juices, teas, alcohol and other drinks.

PROJECT SCOPE

With rapid expansion, the customer was facing challenges with its aging Red Lion DSPSX000 Operator Interface and Protocol Converters, which were at the end of its lifecycle. The challenge site was faced with how and what to retrofit these converters with. Based on current operations, the manufacturer was only able to retrofit during a shutdown period as they are controlling the process 24/7.

SOLUTION

After thorough review and consultation with Control Logic, a decision was made to retrofit the Red Lion DSPSX000 Operator Interface and Protocol Converter with the Red Lion Graphite Edge Controller. Two Red Lion Graphite Edge Controllers was installed at the next shutdown and the other seven during future shutdowns. The key differentiator with the Edge controller is that it can communicate with over 300 major industrial protocols. Several protocols were are currently used within this plant so this was critical for its continued smooth operation. The Red Lion Graphite Edge Controller also has an Intuitive drag-and-drop graphical software for easy setup which meant less downtime and the need for additional training.

BENEFITS
Red Lion’s Graphite® Edge Controller is a rugged standalone industrial controller that features all-metal construction and works with a variety of I/O modules to combine IEC 61131 control capabilities with networking and data visualisation alongside the core Graphite functionality of protocol conversion, data logging and web serving. The key benefit here is the easy single-solution configuration eliminating the need for third-party software. Long term benefits include greater efficiencies and lower costs over time. Red Lion's software ‘Crimson 3.1’ requires no additional fees or annual costs and its user-friendly interface means that there is less time spent in training, and because of its ease of use, encourages its users to utilise all its features.